New rules by Croatia and Slovenia for the transport of refugees

Croatian and Slovenian goverments introduce new procedures for migrants and refugees transiting through Serbia

Croatia and Slovenia have introduced new rules for the transport and registration of refugees and migrants from war-affected areas coming into the two countries from Serbia. The new procedures has been already set in effect from 1 January, 2016, aiming at faciliating and securing the transition process.

According to the established rules, Serbian police now have to verify the identities, as well as the countries of origin of the refugees, and submit a list to their Croatian colleagues before migrants enter the train which will take them to Croatia and further to Western Europe.

"That won't be a big problem for Serbia because such lists are already compiled at Presevo (a refugee reception centre near the border with Macedonia) where all migrants are given appropriate documents," said Aleksandar Vulin, Serbian Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. He noted that Serbia has already notified Macedonian authorities as well, adding that Skopje would comply to the measures introduced by Croatian and Slovenian governments.

"All the people who board the train must be included on the corresponding lists with information about their names and countries of origin", Vulin underlined.

Moreover, in order to reduce the danger for possible incidents, another measure was taken by the goverments, by placing a limit to the number of people that are allowed to be transported per train.

Vulin confirmed that in the future there will never be more than 940 migrants in a single train, following the decision of the reduction of number of people which can be transferred per train.